Acting on the recommendations of its 11-member panel deputed to look into the report of the Rajinder Sachar Committee that analysed the social and educational status of the Muslims, the Left Government in Kerala is likely to set up a full-fledged state department for the welfare of minorities along with a Minorities Development Corporation, Government sources informed.The committee, headed by CPI(M) leader and Local Administration Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty, had handed over a 15-point list of recommendations to Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, who said the Cabinet would decide on those.Sources said the committee has also asked the Government to sanction more schools and colleges for Muslims considering their educational backwardness, and to ensure a foolproof mechanism to ensure that Muslims get full reservation benefits. For the latter, the Paloli committee is learnt to have also suggested de-linking appointments based on merit from appointments under the reserved categories, by the state Public Service Commission.The committee comprising MPs K E Ismail of CPI and T K Hamza of the CPI(M), Left MLAs K T Jaleel and A A Azeez; and community leaders and public figures like C Ahamed Kunji, Dr Hussain Randathani, O Abdurrahman, Dr Fazal Gafoor, T K Wilson and Kadackal Abdul Azeez Moulavi, had drawn responses some 5,000 people across the state before framing its recommendations. It has also mooted an Arabic University in the state, among other initiatives.Government sources claimed the committee had sifted through all available field data to reach its recommendations for bettering the lot of the state’s Muslims, comprising about one-fourth of Kerala’s population.Some of these include that there are still only 7.5 per cent Muslims in state Government employment, and the community’s backwardness in the area of higher education often denies them even available reservation benefits. For instance, the state Government’s Justice Narendran Commission which looked into this issue had found that over 7,000 jobs reserved for Muslims in the Government had actually gone to others, more particularly the higher posts. Kerala Muslims have only a 1.6 per cent representation in the civil services and senior positions, much lower than in the neighbouring southern states.IN MINORITY • A 2006 study by the Left-inclined Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad had reported that only 8.1 per cent of Muslims in the state access higher studies, against 18.7 per cent of Hindus and even 10.30 per cent of Scheduled Castes•A 2004 study by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram had said that only 15 per cent of Kerala’s Muslims reach a higher secondary school, compared to 29 per cent of Hindus and 36 per cent of Christians in the state
